


Nameless

by freedomfrenzy



Category: Elsewhere University (Webcomic)
Genre: (not) dealing with the Gentry, Chemistry Major, Gen, and of manners, storyteller - Freeform, the value of names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 16:27:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12369600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freedomfrenzy/pseuds/freedomfrenzy
Summary: She does not have a name, but she knows yours.





	Nameless

If you are foolish enough to be caught outside by the new moon, you might make your way to the last window of the westernmost residence. It will not save you, but if you find her in time, They will wait until her story is finished to Take you.

She does not have a name, but she knows yours. Not through any magiks or deals wrought, by something simpler and more human and a good deal more dangerous. 

For the right price, she will tell you your Name. Few will pay such prices that she demands. This is as she intends. Once known, a Name is hard to hide. 

Far cheaper is a good nickname, costing only your favourite word. If you change nicknames often, offer a sentence that makes you shiver and she will give you a new nickname each semester. Those with names given by her are rarely Taken, always through carelessness, and always returned. 

Some have tried to buy Names not their own. There are whispers about what has happened to students like that, whispers only heard by such students themselves. She will not trade what is not yours to own.

Others say she is one of Them, unconvinced by her chemistry major. Well, said. The events of last year are hard to argue with.

They have tried to bargain with her, you see. 

The last time...the last time, she took a ring of iron and had it engraved with worda not even the engraver knows. When They came, sounds like claws clicking upon the floor and the smell of rotting fruit, she turned Them down politely; and when They would have Taken her anyway, she let it slip from her finger. Even the Gentry have Names. No human knows what became of the one with their name engraved in iron stuck to their skin. The Gentry were not pleased, but she tells stories to the night air each new moon and so far none have sought revenge.


End file.
